Ed Wolf asks, "How do we reunite with such hatred, persecution and division occurring across the land?"

Day 180. Fantasy Potluck
On May 9 1865, 152 years ago today, President Andrew Johnson officially declared that the Civil War had ended. By then, well over 700,000 Americans had lost their lives. This morning I’m thinking of the Trump voters in my life and wondering how we’re going to come back together, call a truce, practice amnesty, cross the aisle. How do we reunite with such hatred, persecution and division occurring across the land? Continued accusations and mean-spirited interaction

From AIDSmap, Michael Carter reports on a study designed to examine the association between chronic depression and clinical outcomes.

Increased time spent living with depression is associated with poorer engagement with the HIV care continuum, investigators from the United States report in JAMA Psychiatry. Chronic depression was associated with missing appointments, a detectable viral load and an increased mortality risk.
“We found that a greater proportion of time spent with depression increased the risk of missed primary care appointments and lack of viral suppression in a dose-response manner,” comment the autho

Matt Levine: "So as the new year unfolds, I’m taking this look back, less a review, more an emotional detox..."

Part 1: The frog
These days my emotional orbit seems to range wider than the Voyager 1 Space probe. True, that’s overly dramatic and quantifiably false, but cosmic exaggeration aside, there does seem to be some distant, vast and dark void between my moods.
Last year was tough. Somewhere between a doozy and a mind-fuck, a roller coaster and a road trip with people you hate. But that assessment makes me wince. How can frustration coexist with thirty years of living well with HIV? Surv

Ed Wolf: "I’m so over all the hoopla about Trump's first 100 days; I’d rather celebrate and acknowledge more important events..."

Photo of hospital bed from the internet
Day 149. The Big Bed
There were times on the AIDS ward, during the worst days of the epidemic, when several patients died on the same day. Broken-hearted lovers and friends and family members would circle the bed and weep as their beloveds departed. There were other days when everyone was well enough to be discharged and live another day. As soon as the bed was available, someone else would be admitted. Sometimes, when there was an empty bed, a docto

“Is this a signal that they’re moving away from evidence-based policy?" From Healio, this report.

To read the complete story visit Healio, here.
The AIDS czar under former U.S. President Barack Obama worries about the consequences of the Trump administration’s recent termination of the last members of a presidential HIV/AIDS council.
“Is this a signal that they’re moving away from evidence-based policymaking? That’s what’s troubling,” Jeffrey S. Crowley, MPH, program director of infectious disease initiatives at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law

From New York, Félix Garmendía: "Every sundown is counted, every smile is felt deeply and appreciated, every new day is a gift full of life..."

As a secular humanist, I have no particular spiritual connection to Christmas, but I do enjoy very much the atmosphere that surrounds the whole phenomenon of Christmas every year (“don we now our GAY apparel….”). In my neighborhood, Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, the main commercial street gets decorated with beautiful lights everywhere. It’s a playground of traditional consumerism and yet also a festive and exciting time for many, many people -- even jaded New Yorkers.
I re

Heterosexual men had undiagnosed HIV longer than women who inject drugs or gay and bisexual men (a median of about five years, two years and three years, respectively).From AIDSmap, Liz Highleyman reports.

Many people with HIV in the United States are still being diagnosed with HIV late, and therefore not getting the full therapeutic and prevention benefits of starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) early, according to the latest Vital Signs report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released in advance of World AIDS Day.
People at risk for HIV in the US are getting tested more often than they did in the past and are living with HIV for a shorter period of time bef

Ed Wolf: "It helps me to remember that though the tsunami was a terrible event, the story that’s most important is about people helping each other through Terrible Times."

Day 108. One Life, One Death
Two years ago, after a sweet birthday dinner, I couldn’t return to my apartment because policemen blocked the street I lived on. I could see flashing lights in front of my building and a body in the street. I waited for hours, with many of my neighbors, before police lead us back to our apartments. When I got to my door the body was gone but the street was still wet with his blood.
The following day I found out that the victim was our neighbor Amilcar Perez-Lop

Isaac D. Joseph: "As of today, I have been sober for 30 days after a relapse period of four months."

When the days are cold, and the cards all fold, and the saints we see are all made of gold…when you feel my heat look into my eyes it’s where my demons hide…don’t get too close, it’s dark inside, it’s where my demons hide – Imagine Dragons, "Demons"
Remember when you were a child and you and your friends would play hide and seek. There was always one person that you knew would be found first, the few that would always make it to the base, and one that you would never find. The h

T.J. Miller invites Dr. Elizabeth M. Clark to an open dialogue to bring her (and Georgia) up to speed on HIV.

Dr. Clark,
I choose to address you using this name, as this is the name that you are licensed under by the State of Georgia in the United States of America under the auspices of the Composite State Board of Medical Examiners under medical license #024915 first issued on June 14, 1983 which expires on August 31, 2019. Besides being a board certified Anesthesiologist who trained at McGill University (Class of 1980) in Montreal, Quebec Canada, you also are a Georgia State Legislator from their 4